Friday, April 12, 2013

Prequel: The conclusion

Rapid gunfire. Explosions. Raised voices. Total black out in
this tiny room. They needed to move.

"Where's my uniform? We need to go." He didn't need to reach
far to find her as she was plastered against his back. "Hope, c'mon."

"I don't know where Sally
is. I thought she'd come back
here." Her voice sounded ghostly through the dark. He couldn't even see his hand when he held it
up to his face. Either that, or he'd
gone blind, which wouldn't exactly be good for either of them right now.

He coughed at the smoke.

With speed that startled him, she shoved
his discarded equipment in his arms. He heard more rustling and knew she
gathered her bag.

“How did you find it in the dark?”

“Sixth sense, I guess. It came in handy when I
used to sneak out of my mom’s house as a teenager. I could crawl through the woods with the
stealth of a mountain lion.”

He laughed at both the image and
her words. “Sneak out a lot?”

“Yeah, I was a real nightmare of a
kid, always looking for a way to circumvent the rules. I'll hand it to my
parents, though. They figured out reverse psychology pretty quickly."

He smiled in the dark. He didn't
know what he'd ever done good in his life that a woman like her had loved a guy
like him, but he thanked heaven for taking pity on him. “I'm getting us out of this, babe. Stay behind
me, do as I say, and don't get killed.”

"Don't get killed. Wow, great
advice, Colonel. I'll try." She collided into his back.

An explosion, close from what he
could surmise, thundered against the wall. Yelling outside the door snapped him to attention. He found her shoulder in the dark and pulled
her close.

“Be ready to move fast,” he
whispered against her ear.

“This coming from the man I
half-carried here?”

"I'm good now. Trust me. I've
got this."

Training told him the sounds
outside the door were not good. He felt
around the edges of the door and frowned. Gunfire from the other side of the
door tensed them both.

If only he could remember what the
outside of this hall looked like, if only he had been conscious…he grimaced and
held the gun in one hand while the other gripped her hand. The smoke worried him. They could be walking right into disaster. Not could be.
Most likely were.

Silence outside prompted him to
edge open the door. A barrier stood there,
outlined by orange light.

“A pantry,” she whispered against
his chin.

Expelling a quick breath, he edged
the cabinet with his foot. A body of a
woman blocked it from opening all the way. Flames engulfed the house. Gunfire
silenced the screaming from down the hall.

“Marishka. Oh my God.”
She stopped and stared down at the blood seeping from the woman's
head. She'd died outside the pantry.
Protecting them? Perhaps.

“Move,” he ordered and pulled her
down the hall. The look on her face
sickened him.

“Her children…”

He knew the fate of those children
but chose not to elaborate. Another
explosion rocked the ground. They had a
chance to get free of this chaos undetected to reach the extraction team.

Men whose faces were hidden behind
masks ran from the house in front of him without noticing their presence. He pressed against the wall and shoved Hope
behind him. Unseen, they moved through
the increasing smoke to the chaos outside.
Staying low, they ran through the streets unseen.

An anti-aircraft missle blew
through the air above their heads. They pressed flat against the ground behind
a crumbled wall.

“We’re caught in the crossfire,” Hope
said, her eyes trained on the street.
"There's the van where Peter...do you think Sally's safe?"

“I’ll get you out of here, babe.”

She looked at him, sorrow and fear
contorting her face. “If you say so.”

“Trust me.”

“Right. I've got my Marine.” She adjusted the messenger bag and Peter's
backpack around her body. “Why am I not
as terrified as I should be?”

“Stupidity, ignorance, delusions of
grandeur,” he whispered.

"Those could be your last
words to me and that's what you say?"

He smiled. If he had to be stuck in
hell, he couldn't think of anyone he'd rather have by his side.

Footsteps silenced them both. Turning he saw a man raise his gun in their
direction. He shoved her face to the
ground and fired his gun. Warding off
dizziness, he pulled her to her feet and ran in the direction of the marines.

An explosion at their backs pushed
them both onto the ground. He covered
his body with his, a million stabs of fire on his legs. He turned and fired in the direction of the
grenade. This was war. This was life and death.

“I see our guys,” she said,
stumbling to her feet at his side. “This
way.”

He saw them, too. Better yet, the Marines saw them and were
shooting at the enemy to give them an escape route. His vision blurred. He pushed her ahead of him and watched the
messenger bag slap against her hips as she ran.
He twisted onto his side and fired back while bullets skimmed past his
head.

“Michael!” He heard her call his name.

“Keep going! Run!” He watched her skid to a stop and look over
her shoulder. Mixed emotions twisted her
beautiful face...fear, confusion. “Run,
damn it!”

Two Marines grabbed her arms and
pulled her behind a wall. Weakness weighed down his legs as he stumbled toward
them. Blood trickled into his eyes.

Pain sliced through his waist, tearing him in two. He fell face forward onto the ground, tasted
the earth in his mouth and lifted his face in the direction of his
comrades. Hope twisted free from McGee
and ran back toward him. McGee followed
at her heels. But he kept his focus on her face, saw the determination, watched
that damn hat of hers fall from her red hair. Vision narrowed to a pinpoint.

* * * *

“Are you insane?" McGee tossed her back
against the inside wall of the inside of the helicopter. "What the hell are you doing out here
anyway? Are there other civilians with
you?"

“He's hurt.” She shook him off and knelt at Michael’s side. She knew she'd never get the image of him
falling face first into the ground out of her mind. A medic’s hands ripped off Michael's vest.

"I asked you a question. Are
there others with you?" McGee pulled her back.

"Peter's dead. Sally's
missing," she answered without taking her eyes from Michael.

She pushed away from McGee and
crawled to Michael as the helicopter lifted up. The words of those around her
faded to background noise. If he
died…she squeezed her eyes closed to stop the thoughts. He couldn’t die.

Oxygen covered his nose and
mouth. A medic worked to stop the
bleeding.

“Are you injured, Shane?” McGee's
hands were on her shoulder. "You're
bleeding."

She laced her fingers through
Michael's, refusing to be pushed away from his side. Images of him falling into
the dirt replayed in her mind.

A medic reached for her as she slumped
across his chest. Someone said something
about her being shot, she didn't know.

“I’m not giving up on you,
Michael,” she whispered. “You’re going
to see your son, see home, you will, I know you will, we’re all going to go
home, have some beers and dance again, yes we will, we all will. We’ll all go home.” She thought of Peter and the wedding ring she'd
taken from his lifeless hand.

"Shane,
you need to give us some room to work on him." Someone pulled on her
shoulders but she clung to Michael's hand.

"I'm
not letting him go, I'm not." She squeezed her eyes closed and held firm.
No way she'd let go. She prayed then,
harder than she'd ever prayed, that he'd be okay, that they'd live to see those
plans through, that they'd make it home.

The End of the Prequel

Read Reckless Endangerment, the bestselling romantic suspense novel, and find out if Michael and Hope get their happily ever after back in the United States. Hint: It's not an easy road home.

Books by Amber Lea Easton

Coffee Time Romance says, "Most authors only aspire to the level of mastery that Easton achieves. Plots are unique, characters are multi-dimensional, and the experience is just that--an experience. Her books break the mold." What are you waiting for? Be swept away with romance, suspense, and adventure today! http://www.amberleaeaston.com

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Amber Lea Easton

Amber Lea Easton is a multi-published cross genre author of romantic suspense, action adventure, mystery thrillers, and nonfiction. Her stories cross all boundaries and appeal to a wide audience. If you love a clever plot, action that will leave you breathless, riveting characters and sexy love scenes, her books will appeal to you. "Smart is sexy," Easton says, which is why she focuses on smart heroines who always have a lot to lose yet find the courage to face their fears to overcome adversity. She's an avid reader of all genres or "whatever turns her on in the moment". Easton grew up in Hartford, South Dakota, where she spent her time daydreaming of big adventures over the horizon under a giant blue South Dakota sky. Now living in Colorado, she's an avid traveler who incorporates her real life travels into her novels as much as possible (minus the illegal activities her characters become immersed in--she swears). To her, setting is another character in the novel and often serves as an inspiration. Love is her motivation for all things--whether it be writing, traveling, playing with her dogs or hanging with her two teenagers--if it's not done with love, then what's the point?

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